It is a new beginning for American Formula 1 teams. Gene Haas’ eponymous team is set to debut at the Australian Grand Prix Sunday week. The Haas F1 2016 season is expected to be challenging, but unlike the fate which eventually followed for the three teams which entered F1 in 2010 (the last to do so) – Lotus, Virgin and Hispania, with a raft of Ferrari technology including their most up to date power unit, windtunnel access and some experienced drivers piloting the VF-16, challenging for points regularly must not be completely out of the question for F1’s first new team in six years, and the first new all-American team (bar the botched US F1 attempt) in almost forty years since the great Roger Penske’s eponymous team.
The Drivers
Romain Grosjean
2008-2009: Renault (test, then race driver)
2011-2015: Lotus (test, then race driver)
2011 GP2 Champion
Frenchman Romain Grosjean has raced for the Enstone team (Renault, then Lotus, now Renault again) for the entirety of his F1 career up until now. To date he has ten podiums in F1 and last season he absolutely decimated his team mate Pastor Maldonado. He also fared quite well against Kimi Raikkonen in 2013. His experience in F1 will certainly help the team in its early stages and he will certainly be likely to sneak the car into positions it doesn’t belong – especially in qualifying where he has proven to be so strong in the past.
Esteban Gutierrez
2011-2014: Sauber (test, then race driver)
2015: Ferrari (reserve)
2010 GP3 Champion
Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez will bring experience from Ferrari to Haas in 2016, as well as a large fanbase from his home country. The results Gutierrez has produced so far in F1 have been lukewarm at best: six points in 2013 whilst team mate Nico Hulkenberg scored 51, followed by no points in 2014 when the car should have been capable of doing so. Gutierrez has been given an unlikely second chance by taking on the role of test driver at Ferrari for a season. Whether his time watching Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen has helped his driving or not is yet to be seen.
Testing
Haas completed the lowest mileage of all teams during the winter testing, and has hit a number of issues which arguably is to be predicted with a new team. However positively the car seemed to be up to speed almost instantly, and seems to be within the sort of region that Manor are in and not too far away from the midfield at all. Limited running may hurt them, but as long as the issues get ironed out during testing, that’s perfectly fine.
Prediction
Unlike the three teams which entered F1 in 2010, Haas appears to be quite well prepared and they seem to know the task at hand. They have a lot of components which are also used on Ferrari’s car this year which is not a bad thing. They have a very good driver in Romain Grosjean and I believe that he will bring a few surprising results. I believe that Haas will be one of three or four teams which will make up the ‘backmarkers’ this year, as opposed to Manor occupying the final two places in qualifying at almost every weekend. I believe Haas could well finish a very respectable ninth in its first campaign.
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